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| The 2018 PGS Spring Split roster of the former relegated squad Naga eSports. Pro Gaming Series |
By Ozzy
Alaba
MANILA -- After almost
two years of painful absence, Naga eSports will finally set foot into the PGS
playoff stage yet again.
Naga eSports
(NE) successfully booked a ticket to the 2018 Bacchus PGS Spring Split Playoffs
as they shockingly swept the defending champions Team Manila Eagles (TME), 2-0
to wrap their group stage standings in fifth place in Day 1 of the seventh and
final week of the group stages on Friday.
Naga, who
painstakingly faced an automatic relegation to the secondary league in the 2016 PGS Summer Split due to its eighth place finish (2-12, 0 wins - 2 draws - 5 losses) finally tasted the feeling of competing into
the bracket stage yet again since 2016 Spring as their veteran mid laner Karl
Vincent Danzo saved his best performance to the last, submitting excellent
plays on Xerath and his signature Ahri to carry the six-man squad to the
victory.
With his
stellar showing, Danzo, also known as KarlCulated, alongside with the W, was
also hailed as the Player of the Game through his 6.25 Kill-Death-Assist (KDA)
Ratio (16/4/9 KDA), highighting his game-high 12/2/4 KDA on Ahri in
Game 2, which made a significant impact to their series win.
NE’s jungler
Kurt Cristobal (Rebengga) and support David Constantine Viray (Neep) also
didn’t fail in supporting Danzo to carry as the veteran duo bagged a combined
6/8/42 KDA (6 KDA Ratio), enough to contribute in anchoring the squad to the
much-important W.
NE’s rookie
top laner Angelico Matheo Natividad also stepped up, playing carry and tanky
champions like Maokai and the rarely-used Kled, which resulted to a 7/5/18 KDA
(5 KDA Ratio) in the entire series.
Chaos was
what both squads exemplified in the first minutes of the curtain-raiser.
Both teams
were continuously exchanging kills in the first 10 minutes, accentuating
Danzo’s solo kills on TME’s jungler Bryan Infanso and mid laner Robert Dan
Mansilungan in his jungle roaming antics and a 2 for 2 kill exchange in a bot
lane teamfight.
As NE
continued to scale hard for the late game, they also extended their 1,000-gold
margin to 4,000 gold as the veteran-aided roster took down more objectives and
towers in a span of less than seven minutes.
And their
hard-scale farming paid off in the 25th minute
as NE secured the Baron Nashor and picked off TME’s top laner Jaiby Paglingayen
and AD Carry Marc Ilagan in a Baron pit clash.
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| RESULT OF HARD SCALING. NE (red side) finally paid its hard-scaling off as they picked off two kills to TME (blue side) in a Baron Pit clash, alongside with the Baron Nashor in the 25th minute. |
The
onslaught just didn't end there. NE then instantly surged at TME’s base in the
28th minute,
exchanging two kills to one in a TME’s base clash, getting the upper hand in
the series in 28 minutes.
Riding the
momentum high, NE then continued in their wreak-havoc strategy in the first
moments of the second game as they won numerous teamfights and got the
objective control in 24 minutes.
With
everything on disadvantage for TME, that’s where Paglingayen shone as his
pocket-pick Fiora got a Quadra kill in a top lane clash in the 27th minute.
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| POCKET PICK. TME's top laner Jaiby Paglingayen brought his pocket pick Fiora into the PGS spotlights as he picked off a Quadra Kill in a top lane teamfight in the 27th minute. |
But it was
short-lived as NE easily wiped them in another TME base teamfight, 4 for 1,
sealing the deal and forcing TME to call the series quits in a 35-minute
skirmish.
Meanwhile,
Paglingayen, a former PGS champion displayed a decent performance for TME,
submitting a 2.13 KDA Ratio (9/8/8 KDA), putting his 8/4/4 KDA on Fiora in the
spotlight, altogether with Ilagan, who garnered a 3.5 KDA Ratio (4/4/10 KDA) in
the end.
With its
series win and seed placement, Naga (5th place) will have a
rematch with TME (4th place) in the Quarterfinals of the
bracket phase.
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| The bracketing of the six teams who qualified for the 2018 Bacchus PGS Spring Split Playoffs. Leaguepedia |
Follow him on Twitter: @History4Lyf
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